After late debate, road funding hits dead end; Senate to try again today

LANSING —After a 15-hour session Wednesday that ended with the Michigan Senate failing to come up with the votes for a long-term funding solution to fix the state’s crumbling roads, lawmakers were back at it this morning. But five hours into today’s session, the Senate still had not gone back to again try to pass a package of bills to increase road funding.

Instead, the Senate has passed a series of unrelated bills and spent time behind closed doors, presumably trying again to cobble together the necessary votes on road funding before it breaks for summer recess. Also awaiting action is the omnibus state budget bill, which the Senate is expected to approve this afternoon following House passage earlier in the day.

After starting the session at 10 a.m. Wednesday, the Senate adjourned early Thursday morning, unable to cobble together majority support for a package of bills that would raise around $1.5 billion annually.

When it was clear that no support existed for a major tax increase, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, tried again, this time proposing a much watered down version that would raise only $39 million.

But that failed, too. Eventually, senators gave in shortly after 1 a.m.

Richardville said they would try again when the Senate convenes at 10 a.m.

“I think we will be able to get that piece done,” he said. “It was a step in the right direction.”

There is now just one day left to complete that step and finish approving the state budget before lawmakers are up against their self-imposed Thursday deadline and leave for a 12-week summer vacation to go home and campaign.

The main bill in the package, House Bill 5477, was defeated four times throughout the day and night, as the Republican-led Senate worked to persuade enough of its members to support some version of it.

That bill originally would have moved to a wholesale gas tax of 7 percent that would increase 2 percentage points each year until fully implemented in 2019 at 15 percent. That would equate to roughly 41.5 cents a gallon and generate an additional $1.1 billion annually, according to a document provided by the Senate Republicans.

Richardville’s final attempts to approve the lesser version of a wholesale gas tax at 7 percent were met with ridicule from Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing.

As it was being proposed, without lawmakers having had a chance to review it, she took to the floor and criticized Republicans for trying to approve such a paltry sum for the roads.

“This amendment is a joke,” Whitmer said.

That version then failed, 14-24.

After moving onto some unrelated bills, the Senate Republicans went into caucus. When they emerged, they tried again to put the bill up for a final vote.

The fourth attempt failed as well on a 19-16 vote, with 20 votes needed for passage.

Richardville disagreed with Whitmer and said the new plan was not a laughing matter.

“I don’t joke about $40 million,” he said.

Whitmer said it’s ridiculous for Republicans to pretend it is a solution to vote for a bill that raises $39 million when the actual need is in the ballpark of $1.8 billion.

“We don’t think that’s even worth talking about at this point,” she said.

Raise the sales tax? Nope

Earlier Wednesday, the debate began with a defeat.

First up was a resolution to place an amendment to the Michigan Constitution on the November ballot to increase the state sales tax by 1 percent and devote the increase to road and bridge funding. Passage required a two-thirds majority, or 26 votes. But it failed with just 14 in support and 24 opposing it.

The idea behind this resolution was to give voters a choice of which way they wanted to pay for increased road funding. The plan was for lawmakers this week to approve a gas tax increase that would go into effect in January. But if voters in November approved the sales tax increase on the ballot, that would become law and the gas tax increase wouldn’t take effect.

Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, said the plan would have allowed voters to decide the best path forward to fund the roads. “Our roads are deplorable,” Kahn said. “It offers them the ability to say yea or nay.”

Democrats argued that the sales tax increase is regressive and would hurt the poor, and all 12 in their caucus voted against it.

What did pass: Homestead Property Tax credits

What did pass were two bills that largely would restore the cuts made to the Homestead Property Tax credits. They were approved 37-1, with Kahn offering the lone no vote each time. He opposed the bills because he said the state could not afford the roughly $200 million annual price tag.

But the passage of those bills is contingent upon passage of the gas tax increase. Because that vote failed, the property tax credit bills would not take effect.

While not connected to road funding, passage of the property tax credits was seen as key to gain support from Democrats for the gas tax increase portion of the package. Democrats have pushed for restoring the credit since Republicans cut it in 2011.

The bill that generated the most heated debate, HB 4630, also was defeated, 18-20. That measure would have raised about $170 million by removing discounts on registration fees. But what was defeated — and which provoked scorn and accusations — were amendments from Democrats seeking to lower truck weights.

Sen. Coleman Young II, D-Detroit, accused Republicans of “drinking special-interest Kool-Aid” and being bought by those interests to vote against lowering truck weights. That brought an admonishment from Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who asked Young to stay on topic and not make unproven allegations against his colleagues.

Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, pushed back against the charge that heavy trucks are damaging the roads. He said having the weight spread across more axles does not hurt the roads. Rather, it is the frost and other weather conditions that hurt the roads here more than in other states.

Young and other Senate Democrats said everyone knows it is the heavy trucks that are to blame for tearing up their roads. “That’s like arguing whether birds exist or whether owls can fly, or whether mammals breathe air and drink water,” Young said. “Why are we debating facts?”

Young said no one wants to harm the trucking industry, but if lawmakers are going to vote to ask residents to pay more for their gas or registration fees, then everyone else should pay, too. “This is an issue of fairness,” he said.

Later in the evening, the bill was reconsidered and changed so that rather than registration fees increasing, they would be frozen so auto owners would not see an increase next year.

Sen. Howard Walker, R-Traverse City, sponsor of the amendment that made the change that secured passage of the bill, said it would not raise the same level of revenue as the original version, but he did not specify how much.

Later still in the evening, Young apologized to Casperson and Calley for his outburst.